Those who lived through the brutalities of the current and former oppressive regimes of Ethiopia will definitely have experienced it, and those who have lived in the West long enough to follow the news of those who have lived through the bloodshed of the Middle-Eastern wars are familiar with the term post-traumatic syndrome, but how many of us actually think this syndrome (which can have a devastating and lasting psychological impact on an individual) may be afflicting us! I am not a psychologist, but would certainly appreciate the input from a psychologist to help explain some of the behavior we Ethiopians, especially in the Diaspora, commonly display, and which seem to defy logic!

I have often wondered, quietly on my own, or thinking loudly in my articles, why we refuse to come together and stand united to, at least, honestly confront ourselves in pursuit of answers as to what is the reason for this very serious shortcoming!

If one observes a herd of buffalos from a safe distance, one observes all sorts of activities include fights between the bulls and these can be ferocious and may end up fatally wounding a participant! But when an outside intruder appears on the scene, either the herd stampedes away or turns to fight the intruder. It would be rear to witness a continued fight between the bulls in such a situation. One would observe a similar behavior in a pride of lions and other social animals! In a human environment this basic survival instinct exists, and the level of sophistication in the interpretation of the threat and subsequent defense needed against the threat are, of course, different depending on the prevailing circumstances.

So why such a consistent aberration when it comes to us, Ethiopians? The various dictators have disowned us, displaced us, taken away our freedom of speech, jailed us, tortured us, raped our women, killed our beloved ones, raped our Motherland, and even dismembered our motherland! Any humiliation one can think of has been perpetrated against our people in the most perverse and inhuman way possible! Yet we appear to be completely paralyzed in the face of all this! Why?

Consider the circumstances of most Ethiopians in the Diaspora:

1. The condition that led you leave Ethiopia: Lack of freedom; fear of arrest; arrest torture and imprisonment; killing of a beloved one; lack of the wherewithal to look after yourself or your beloved ones, etc.

2. The method of your flight from your country: walking through forests and deserts and across dangerous borders. In peril of being attacked by wild animals and in danger of dying due to starvation and thirst, while terrified of being spotted by the defenders of the regime – who would, most likely, kill you without even an interrogation or after sadistic torture!

3. Encounters outside your beloved motherland: Humiliation by the forces in the country of refuge - abuse, rape, murder, begging, and exiting from there by means no less perilous than the you used when you left your Motherland.

4. You somehow survive all the perils and obstacles that were thrown in your paths and arrive at your destination – the place you will call “home away from home”! At your arrival, tired and haggard as you may be, there is the inevitable sense of exhilaration and accomplishment, a well deserved self congratulation, and the very necessary sense of relief, until the following day, when you wake up to the necessary evil of learning to cope in your new “home away from home! As you go through this phase, you often ask yourself “why in the world did I put myself through all this and come to this horrible country”! This question has led to many suicides, many sufferings. Mercifully, the majority have found their feet in their “new home”! Many have taken all these in their strides and excelled. Today there are Ethiopian professors throughout the world, (many in the West), successful entrepreneurs, and so on and so forth!

Unfortunately, whether one perished in one’s flight from the Motherland or made it in the “new home”, the experience takes its toll, and in our case it has been devastating! Devastating because whether we are at the top of our game or scraping the bottom of the barrel in our “new home” we seem to have lost a lot on the way:

1. As a people we seem to have failed to use our communal survival instinct!

2. We seem to have lost the capacity to come together for a common purpose, while seemingly appreciating the necessity and even the urgency to do so!

3. The individual successes we have achieved in our “new home away from home” seem to have instilled a quixotic sense of independence and pride in ourselves!

4. We are suspicious of any other Ethiopian who has a different view from us or even similar views, if he/she happens to hail from a different back ground!

5. We have totally lost respect for each other

6. We don’t tolerate each other.

7. We are perpetually in denial! Denial that we may be wrong; that our enemies may be right; that our Motherland is in a perilously unstable state; that we desperately need to do something to avert a looming catastrophe!

In the game of survival, people of different cultures and backgrounds, or even enemies, come together to fight against a common threat, be it natural or man-made! It is incomprehensible that a Tigrean who ran away from Ethiopia to save his life from the current regime back home, comes to America only to find an enemy in an Amhara who ran away from home and came here because of the same reason! It is the lowest, in terms of human values, that an Ethiopian in America gets help from a white American and an insult from a fellow Ethiopian! But what is the reason for this shameful and abominable behavior!

I don’t know the answer for sure, but I suspect a life full of trauma while growing up, torture in the hands of a government that is supposed to protect us, the trials and tribulation of crossing a dangerous border on foot in near starvation state, humiliation in the transit nation and the challenges in our “new home away from home” have inevitably turned us into people we were not, when we were happily growing up or running about our affairs in the tranquillity of our communities, in our motherland! What do I mean?

1. If you were a young boy whose family had to run away under the circumstances I described, you would hate Ethiopia because your memories are filled with pain and fear. That childhood traumatic experience sticks with you for the rest of your life. A caring and responsible family can be helpful in that situation, but as human, bearing the scar of torment and fear at your tender age it is natural to banish the thought of your Motherland out of your mind, because it equates to suffering!

2. If you were a member of a political movement during the early Derg era, you would have had opponents from other organizations with whom you had a bitter relationship that may have led to clashes and loss of lives. Today, you would blame the suffering of those days and the sorry state of Ethiopia today on that organization. Because of the errors of those days, which led to your suffering and a brush with death, you see yourself to have survived, no thanks to your opponents – whom you now consider your eternal enemies. Incidentally even your opponent has similar views about you! You don’t accept any fault and apportion all the blames to your opponents and they in turn do the same to you. There is no convergence – hate and recrimination in perpetuity!

3. If you are an entrepreneur: The current regime or the Derg regime took away your livelihood, locked you up on a trumped up charge of one thing or another. Eventually you make it out of your motherland in one of the ways I described above. Somehow you make it here, using the talents God gave you! You now want revenge against the regime that stripped you of everything you had. You would go as far as hurting any Tigrean or anybody related to the Derg regime, just because of some remote association with your tomentors!

4. If you were a government official in the Derg: You may have been engaged in the Derg atrocities against innocent people or you may have helped people against the Derg – that is, you used your office to protect innocent people against injustices practiced by your administration. Today you are a pariah – nobody will care to understand your circumstances – everybody is painted with the same broad brush!

5. If you were a government official in the Woyane administration at some point, there doesn’t seem to be an opportunity for you to rehabilitate yourself or even explain what risks you may have taken to protect innocent people. You are afraid for your life and people will be suspicious of your wherever you go!

6. If you are an Amhara: You may hate the Tigrean compatriots because of what the current government is doing to Amharas, irrespective of whether that individual had anything to do with the current regime!

7. If you are a Tigrean: You are suspicious of Amharas and others who are suffering under the yoke of tyranny, not because of your support of the current administration, but because you assume (and you are right more often than not) these other ethnic groups would consider you a sympathizer of the current regime and identify you with it.

8. If you oppose the Woyane regime: You are in mortal danger especially if you are considered as serious threat to their survival! You would, therefore, be very fearful of any Tigrean or anybody who has ever been associated with the Woyane!

9. If you are an Oromo: You are likely to consider Amhara, Tigreans and everybody else to be against you because of the suffering through ages and under various administrations. Your suffering and your circumstances of today are all attributed to the inhuman treatment, real or imagined, suffered in the hands of these entities!

All these experiences are etched in the hearts and minds of these survivors and the bitterness is retained in perpetuity. But every now and then things happen that briefly take your mind away from your own terrible experiences of the past and face the realities of today, such as:

1. The abject poverty of our compatriots at home!

2. Starvation in Ethiopia

3. Political unrest in Ethiopia

4. Lack of security and perpetual fear under the current regime

5. Blatant abuse of power and killing of innocent people, etc!

The outrage temporarily makes you forget your own experience and bitterness. You set out demanding redress - removal of the dictatorial regime in Ethiopia! As you travel down that path, you realize that you are heading toward reconciliation with your old enemies in order to effectively counter the current regime, something you cannot stomach! You have psychological barrier, and you don’t know how to overcome it or even may have no intention of overcoming it! Suffice that you have appeared at some protest meetings, participated in a few demonstrations, and also contributed towards some cause! Your conscious is now clear, you have done your best and the rest is in the hands of God and ?America! The plight of Ethiopia continues, the suffering of your people continues, and in spite of all the effort to wring your hands off the problem facing Ethiopia, your guilt conscience also continues, until another cycle of atrocities! And so it goes on and on and on!

The world knows Ethiopians as decent people, as hard working people, as conscientious people and as intelligent people. The world is right about us because all those things are true! But how come we are completely paralyzed when it comes to making a united stand against injustice perpetrated decade after decade against our Motherland and our people? To me the answer seems to lie in our failure to:

3. Appreciate that given the right opportunity people are capable and are willing to admit to their errors and make amends!

4. Our inability to let the by gone be by gone

5. Our failure to confront ourselves and accept at least part of the responsibility for what went wrong

6. Our utter lack of appreciation that we can make the best of friends out of our former enemies

7. Our failure to give ourselves a second chance to study a situation with the view of finding a positive resolution

8. Our unhealthy attitude of self confidence and defiance emanating from our ability to survive against all odds to reach where we have, forgetting that we achieved what we have with the help of others. Such unhealthy attitude adds to our false perceptions that we don’t need each other!

9. Our strange pride in the ability to hate our perceived enemies more than our enemy has the capacity to hate!

Even as we live among the Western societies and use their principles of reconciliation and civility to survive here, we have failed to apply the same principles for the betterment of our people! We have allowed ourselves to be stunted and frozen in a primitive mindset that the best way to deal with people you disagree with, is to excommunicate them, hate them and pretend they don’t exist. This has led to our failure to execute the most elementary measure of coming together to address the problems that afflict each one of us today!

Notwithstanding our claims and appearances to the contrary, we all hang our heads in shame for the abject failure to respond to the call of duty, to help our Motherland and our people! As the days, weeks, months and years go by our people are descending into sub-human levels of existence, and we have failed to stand up for them, instead we perpetually engage in irrelevances to take our minds off the problems we can prevent today, instead of waiting for another disaster to strike, to which we respond with our ritual of wailing outside the seats of power in the West!

Once again, I appeal to you to use the tool we introduced recently – Solidarity Forum of Ethiopia, so that we can all learn to talk with each other, appreciate each other, and do something meaningful for our Motherland – however little, we owe that to ourselves! The cause of our Motherland and our people should help us see beyond the grudge we hold against each other – forgiveness and understanding are higher principles than revenge any day, anywhere! We shall all be a better people if we paid hate with love; neglect with caring; lack of civility with civility, irresponsible behavior with responsible conduct! We must all try to turn enemies into friends – that is the real triumph, not an eye for an eye, or a tooth for a tooth!

To the Author of this article:
You do not have the courage to take a moral stand. You are not sure if the mistreatment of Oromos and others is real or imagined? What sort of standard do “adama.com” use to distinguish intellectuals from the wanna be pseudo intellectuals? This is one of the reasons why Oromos shoud be more agressive and take control of the political power inorder to silence these kinds of dumb analyses.

Most Ethiopians, specially from the cities
left Ethiopia to imporve our life. We
want to work hard and help our family
back home. We dont have time to sit down
with politicans. We are tired of politics
and politicans.

Why do we have to die generation after
generation to change dictators. If you
want to get rid of weyanne, good luck.
I promise you we will be in your victory
parade.
Until then, leave us alone lets improve our life and help our family. The young
generation in diaspora are focused on
education. We need educated powerful people
that can convince investors to invest
in Ethiopia.

Males Zenawi is a killer and he is getting help[ from all the western nations} their moto is the only good niger is a dead niger and Ethiopia is hapy to do their dirty work by caryingout the Genocides in Ogaden and Somali where hundred of thousand have died and million displaced.Males and all Tigre Supports and Getting paid by their Masters/owner the White racist Nations.Is always black people suffering.When Males spend all his Donation Money to buy weopons gues what most of his people are starving.This is their version of prosperity in Africa thanks White satans.

Good analysis. But some facts are a bit blured. Most of the diaspora who claims to be refugee status are economic refugees, not political. ‘cause the same people visits their country annualy after geting permit. Nevertheless, what brought suspiscion among the diasporas was the behaviour of Kinigit followers. They claimed to be the only Ethiopians and castigated anyone who dare to critisize the holly party. One would be dubbed as fascist or Weyane (asthough it was a bad name) and becomes the target of dirty rumour. I heard through the grave wine that a girl who owns a restuarant in DC became victim of such target just for saying Ethiopian economy was growing. They bocoted her restuarant and threatned people who wants to have dinner their. They threatned evry ethnic to such an extent that people were avoiding to meet any Ethiopian. In short they were behaving collectivly as gangsters and thugs who is out to drink blood of non CUD supporter. If you support CUD you will be called progressive if you don’t you are a fascist. So, as sympathiser of the government I know what I would be called. However, there is still time to reform onself and learn to call every Ethiopian an Ethiopian whatever his political outlook is.

I THANK YOU FOR THIS ARTICLE BUT I THINK WE NEED TO GO A MAILE TO RE UNAIT AS PEOPLE IN THE FUTURE …..EVIL POLETICIAN HAS DONE ALOT TO DSTROY OUR DECENT AND HERMONEYS
CULTURE.WHICH OUR FORFATHERS KNOWEN…

You are one of a kind Golto, an enlightning article written in desperation.I dont know how to pinpoint our problem, but I will suggest a solution.
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
WATCH OUR TONGUE.
We all know what our problems are, but we are still searching for the answer. We all go to school to aquire knowlewdge which can benefit us and others.
1. Have we realized our teachers are raised in the knowledge beliving this

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights. . .” This was changed to unalienable by John Adams at the time of printing the Declaration.(Wikipedia)

2.Are we aware of our tongues being a fire. Words could heal our children, friends, countrymen or could burn and damage them for good.
So in short we have to do the right thing,
RESPECT and WATCH OUR TONGUE.

This are things we can control and are the basis of all civilizations we see around us.

Hi,Good job, Aila. I am really imprssed with your insight of problems we have in our country and Ethiopians abroad., but as you mentioned most of us left Ethipia looking for a better life than fear of jail term or torture. There are shortage of opportunities but we were not in life death situation when we abadoned our country, if it were like you mentioned, forced to migate the country we love, we would have fought with teath and nails to get back home and fix the problem. We Ethiopians have Hipocracy issue. The only time we are nationalist are when we compete in sport race and engage in war. Even for that we do nothing except talk about it. we are cofortable here in abroad, Most of us, including me, prefer to get our family menber to get out of the country. So the problem as i see it national pride divided in to many ethenic groups, lost its stream to function, I dont expect diaspora people have the knowledge or the courage to force change. i am talking about, i in 200 people Ethiopians attend collage abroad. When i think about it, if a person cant use a great opprtunity to improve himself, i dont think they are the means for change for Ethiopians, What ever change, EHiopians in side, have to do it themselves, and it doesnt help their cause when thier leaders are abroad looking for advice from diaspora people. Very sad. Thank you again, good article. Ted.

Hi, AILA, just to show you how correct you are. You will find it in this website, Ethiopian won a world record for longest time smiling. I thought it was great, but when i read the comment below, it is just lik you said. n0 respect for each other.
The comment goes as follow,Comment from: addis amet [Visitor]
“yemanew jilanfo. zim bilo indew magtet. yihene wistu arual.

Yilk dehna neger serteh yagerihin sim astera….”
Go figure, This guy said nothing except smiling. how one is going to come out with constructive idea with out fearing being buried alive with hate comments. May God be with us. Regards, Ted

I would like to add one important failure that was not mentioned by the writer, #10 our inabilities to recognize and admit positive improvements when we encounter one.

I’m no psychologist either but I think evaluating our self like the writer did by asking our self serious questions is a starting point for us to make a positive difference to our motherland.
Did I pray for my country?
Did I try to put my bias and emotions aside when I look at our issues?
Did I try to look at things from different angles?
Did I try to be patient?
Did I try to be respectful to my fellow Ethiopians in spite of their different views from mine?
Did I full fill my responsibilities as a responsible law abiding citizen?
Did I have all my facts straight when I accused others?
Did I sponsor our homeless kids or those who are in need?
Did I financially invest in my country?
Did I offer my professional knowledge or service to my country?
Did I participated in any positive cause or just waited for others who are willing to participate?
Did I defend my country from outside enemies?
Did I learn and teach others about my country?

If we all start to answer YES to these and more questions concerning our country, we will overcome our shortcomings and unite for the betterment of our country.

A very good article! For the betterment of ourselves we need leaders. But, dear writer, do not you think that 99% are followers and only the 1% is the leaders? I believe the 1% have been discouraged by the 99% followers. But, naturally leaders are very strong and with lot of patience. Blaming the 99% does not help. A person like you must take the responsibility and be courageous to lead. At first you may have few followers; but the many will follow the few when they see something important and progress

Dear Golto,
It’s a very good observation. The lack of respect for one another, our stubbornness not to accept different views or our permanent denial not to accept and face reality is indeed a very worrying thing. The dilemma we all face here when we think denotatively, is our assumption is that if our metaphor is true, then all other metaphors must be false. What we think is only our representation of reality, or face the consequences that we have created for ourselves. We rather are curious to hear and accept the same sentence spoken by a white person than the one spoken by fellow Ethiopian. We avoid each other in public places to exchange cordial greetings if we sense that we are Ethiopians. Being “away from home” is supposed to bring us even closer and stronger.

We seem to have lost many of our original human qualities. We ignorantly gave away some of the most precious qualities one can have as a human being. We just carelessly let dark forces exploit us, rule over our destiny. Ethiopian sensitivity, our warmth, our humble nature, our shyness, our pride etc, are, contrary to our assumption, very sophisticated eternal qualities that we were supposed to protect and cherish wherever we go. Our spirituality in particular is the most expensive of all the human asset we Ethiopians are blessed with. These days, we don’t even dare to talk about it – it’s not hype among us, while the spiritually dead or hungry world is desperately shouting loud to be heard by God. But us, we have it and we don’t use it properly. We don’t seem to acknowledge the fact that it’s this absence of Spirituality that makes us behave in a primitive and strange way. How could we be happy, loving, considerate or strong if we don’t use the gift that has been given to us by God?

Yes! We are paralyzed because we are not activating that powerful spirituality which could protect us from all evil, which could bring us together while being fearful of God. No! We prefer to follow the current trend of being Godless, indifferent seculars even agnostics. We often avoid calling the name of God properly, or we don’t talk about spirituality enough because we have debilitated ourselves and become disillusioned.

Some even have already begun imposing on us their atheistic convictions or views by depicting Religion and faith in a childish, sloppy or intellectually lazy manner. I am not a religious person, but at least I know that religion and faith are not the same.

The decline of true Ethiopianess, specially amongst us, in the Diaspora, is attributable to lack of the righteousness that was so evident in prior generations who experienced anger against those who would corrupt the Ethiopian System. Fear of damnation gave them moral strength which now is left out of the many materially enthusiastic Ethiopians, who don’t seem to acknowledge the fact that they still have God’s spirit in abundance, who know the Almighty better than other people or who accentuate often God’s love, but not His retribution. All too many who want to be called believers are of the belief that their forefathers faith alone is sufficient. Some are of the mindset that being religious is sufficient to be saved. But, even spirituality and praying alone won’t be enough to be rewarded with righteousness. We have to earn righteousness through our deeds.

Our forefathers were just and righteous. They were God-fearing and humble. They had pride and lots of integrity. We need to learn from the best of those shameless Ethiopians who were, without exaggeration, the best this World had to offer. Instead of quickly dismissing religious fervor of Ethiopians as backward or delusional, instead of putting blind and irrational faith in politicians or insead of looking for scapegoats to our individual problems, we need to learn how to ask for God’s wisdom in our prayers so that our leaders can do His work. For themselves, true believers must ask God for wisdom and do good works and the politics will be resolved to make our beloved country that bright light on the hill.

For many in this world, may be religion is the way of reaching out to God, but Ethiopian Christianity is God’s way of reaching out to Ethiopians. This is the truth! Those who try to demonize our Ethiopian identity will soon face this very truth. Mark my words! Their utter stupidity will come back & haunt them.

Spirituality or Faith is a powerful instrument, an ever sharp 2 bladed sword. It can smite your enemies, give you comfort or strength. It is a gift from God. However, if you give anyone control of YOUR faith, anyone, any group, any church, they can take your faith and slay you with it, physically and spiritually, they can even slay your soul. Let’s take great care in what we place our Original Orthodox Faith in, and if we are ever in doubt, ever, let’s keep our precious faith in our own hands and keep it from those that would use it to do us, others or even themselves big harm.
There is time for everything.

We are blessed with perseverance and rock-steady character in our original identity. We also need to know that God’s enemies far outnumber the faithful for now in this evil world we live in. So, if we would like to see something that gives our lives some meaning, we need to have faith. In good faith we can discover our positive Ethiopian identity, we can victoriously challenge all the evil that surrounds us. Let’s be nice to each other. Let’s learn how to respect our brothers and sisters.

Mr. Do you have a job? Or you just sit back at starbucks and think about “The diaspora".
Maybe you are one of the “ehapa generation” loosers.But i and most of the Abeshas i know since the early 90’s (in southern Cali) are neither political nor hateful towards each other.It’s the old farts from dergue era that are obssessed with politics and one’s tribal affiliation.
Peace to you.Get help.

your stupid comparison the current govt with that of mengestu is baseless and hard to believe.currently mama ethiopia is in good hands.under the brilliant leadership of epdrf and our pm ,ethiopia will florish like never before.the doomdayers like you will spent the rest of your life waiting a catastrophe to come.

Great article for a change. We need more article like this one. This is the only way we can resolve our issue before we can talk about the motherland. Aila fantastic analysis. I just hope finally we will start asking the right questions. Thanks

Dear Ato Golto Aila, I have never heard or read a very sensible, honest, and profound article in a long time. YOU have simply hit the nail on the head. NOW let those who have ears hear it and let those who have sense understand your message. I agree with everything you said a 100%. I never saw myself as a diaspora until recently. I am still in my country spiritually and mentally. Yes bodily i am a diaspora. What amazes me is the more i travelled away from Ethiopia the more i am attracted to my Ethiopia. My understanding and appreciation for my country and my people grew to a higher level due to my being outside of it. I can see no better place than Ethiopia (with all its problems). I am not oblivion to the problems and challenges that we have. I strongly believe we can build our country together. We can build her in our own unique way. It can be done!

Freud & Jung tried to explain it under(entity of man),But in B.E.Skinner & N.Branden version, it is An emotion in the psychosomatic form where people experience thier estimate of the beneficial/harmful relationship of some aspect of reality to themselves.When it comes to Behaviorism it is Methodological not Structural Behavior Thanks.

Your forum is empty and if you do not return within the shortest time it will be closed. Therefore, you will be permanently erased. This forum is only for people with a capacity to share views, news, and articles on Ethiopia(mainly) and the requirements are you present your idea(opinion) related to the article presented to you by Nazareth.com

Special Awards to Dereje, Janet, and Hope for sharing your ideas in a clear and understandable language. Thank you for your wonderful contribution to this forum.

Hope–you raised good points but you started out by saying ….” one failure to the….. You could have presented your brilliant ideas without this statement. I know you mean no harm in that. That is why you deserve a special award too.

in my previous comment i gave short notice to three people to leave this forum and listed their names. However, i made a spelling mistake on one of them as the name is an alien kind. It should be spelt as Armacho and not Armaco. I apologize for the grave mistake i had made and just to summarize my point, this would not have happened if you had stayed in your own forum.

PLEASE WE DO NOT NEED POLITICS. CUD IS DEAD. OLF HAS BEEN DEAD FOR YEARS NOW. WE ARE HERE TO HEAR GOOD NEWS LIKE SPORTS AND LEARN ABOUT OUR COUNTRY. WOYANE IS BEETER THAN ANY OF YOU POLITICIANS. PLEASE IF YOU NEED TO TALK POLITICS TALK TO YOUR WIFE OR RECORD YOURSELF ON A DIGITAL VOICE RECORDER AND HAVE YOUR OWN BROADCAST.

Dear brother, this is a great article written well and to the point. You are right there is a lot of individuals in our community who are not united due to politics. However, the small city I live in all Ethiopians were and are now still united and always help one another and care for one another. It defies all other realities in other large cities in the U.S. It is however, the reality of tribal politics of the homeland that is affecting people in the diaspora. Everything that takes place there does affect all here. Just an observation.

Mr. Golto Aila,
i admit that you are a good writer. However, this does not mean you are objective in what you have writen. You seem to have left your country during Mengistu and the trauma of that experience seem to be still in you to the extent that makes you to believe ethiopia is the same as you left it during Mengistu.
That is why you made a big mistake to put EPRDF and Derg in the same catagory.Why don’t you get an opportunity to visit ethiopia and then write another article so that we will see you if you are a true ethiopian who is concern about the unity of the people. As a Tigrean and ethiopian i personally disagree with EPRDF’s tribal politics. Whoever works for unity is welcomed.

Golto, you better see your psychatrist as soon as possible. You are in a grave danger.

” Lekermo Liabdu, Zendiro Kotin Kef kef Yadergalu!” Ale Yagere Sew.

Your article is fool of contradictions. On one side you tell us that there are great injustices going on in our country now we need to do something ( may be kill all woyane and their supporters), and on other side you tell us to forgive those criminals who starve to death millions of Ethiopians and killed hundred thousnds of Ethiopians in the name of red terror (Derg).

All Diaspora have to do is either invest in their beloved mother land or lobby for their mother land using their infulence in their adopted country. Other than that, we don’t have to agree with each other, we don’t have to love each other or we don’t have to organize each other. If we do, it has to be because we choose to, not because you told us to. Until and unless we go back home and do something in accordance with Ethiopian law and constitution, we have no real influence.

My advise to you is worry about your mental health or go back home and contribute positively. Try to differenciate what you can do and what you can’t do. Change comes by doing small things, not by preaching forgiveness.Past and present criminals have to face justice in the court of law and then be forgiven.

One more information for you: most Ethiopian refugees are economical refugees than political. Don’t forget to see your doctor.

A lot makes sense on the article but the writer came short on a fundamental issues. The title without its details may generally represent the diaspora, leftist ones i better say. The article has failed to demonstrate the fact that the vast majority of diaspora is a civil community that could help build Ethiopia, if a moderate organizer was available; instead politicised and lebeled them into a particular group, from what I can see, into where the writer belongs to. I would agree with this very assessment, if it is targeting the far leftist opposition mainly from a certain generation without thier misguided supporters. I believe it is the so called leftist leaders and elements disorganized, disillusioned….. as the writer call it not others misguided by them whose motives of migration are poverty and the quest for a better life not political. May Justice Prevail!

You are very retarded WEYANE-ADGI who is absent from thinking and boaring me to death by repeating the same WEDI-METRE shit like trained animal. Please get the F*** out your TPLF-pungent head from here and take it to DEDEBIT dunes. The stupid tegre worm like you is a full of S**T and unable to know right from wrong only survives with mental
parasitism and blind chance. GET LOST A-HOLE and good luck using BEN-GAY

This forum is only for people with a capacity to share views” TENAGREH-MOTEHAl

We are not expecting any type of views from WEYANE old furts accompanied by mental infirmity. What kind of compromise you want?There can be no compromise between a property owner and TPLF day light burglars. The looters cheaters and tribal masscarers need totaly annhilation and absolute surrender with
recogniation of our rights to our property.
we don’t share views with stinky TEGRE-LEBAS!!, therfore Don’t come here to fool me since there is no value or concession the bugler to offer in returns. CHIGARAM-LEBAS raising my HTN,

“Disorganized, demoralized and disillusioned” Ethiopian Diasporas…we might not agree with everything this author wrote however the title fits very well too many Diasporas. Without listing some of you cry-baby Diasporas in this forum and all over the west, I hope you/we can wake-up and learn how to respect each others differences and come together to build better future for Ethiopia/ns. Our children and grandchildren deserves better tomorrow and let us once and for all, set-aside our political differences and be more productive.

We can continue trashing each other while others sink into this forum and act like they’re Ethiopians and keep us divide… or we can reject them and say enough is enough, we are going to rise-up to build strong Ethiopia! The Ethiopia we all LOVE!

Those who are creating devision spreading unfounded and useless propagandas in the diaspora are simply the TPLf thugs ,their banda supporters and some fool diaspora peoples hoping one day to enjoy the
tyrant Zenawi’s subside.But the majority of the diaspora is still standing by himself against the tyrany of the Woyane bandits also
denouncing the looting of the country by the Tigrai mafiosis with all their etnical based banda lobbyist groups .
LONG LIVE THE TRUE ETHIOPIANS !!!

Great article. It’s right on the money! hammers home our weaknesses to get along and work with each other. Looking at the other comments and you realize how true the article is. To all those who thought this article was ’stupid and nonesense’, I dare you to write your own analysis and let’s see what you have to say.

I agree we may have all been traumatized as a collective. The Derg has demoralized us as individuals, killed our identity and destroyed our national pride, our social fabric. As a society we have lost respect for each other, for authority, for elders and the rich. We became known for hunger and poverty. Then as if to add insult to injury, woyanne added ethnicism to the whole picture. Instead of Ethiopians, we started to identify along ethnic lines. We have become suspicious of each other, so no wonder we can’t work together. Instead of addressing issues, read message, we try to find out who the messenger is and look for motivations.

We ridicule others and get a kick out of that, as if that would make us look smarter. Look at the other comments above, some are just critical and resort to name-calling and do not even have any substance to them. Sure, everyone is entitled to difference in opinion, but please elaborate your point and try to persuade us. That would take a lot of courage and alas there isn’t enough of that. It feels good to say what you think even if you are wrong and accept criticisms openly and not take them personal. We have a sort of pride in that we think we know and being quiet and modest have been virtues that we have accepted while growing up. We do have a backward way of thinking, Freud would have a field day with us. Is it our upbringing, our history of not being colonized ( yeah, we’re proud of that but maybe some kick in the pants would have helped getting our values sorted out) or what? But people somethings gotta give, or the sum total is zero and we’re not getting anywhere. I can go on and on, but enough for now.

To quote the famous Rodney King “why can’t we all get along???” is an obvious question to ask all of us Ethiopian expatriates now calling ourselves Ethiopian in Diaspora. The answer may be hard to find but if we find it will be harder to find a solution to our problem. The issue of the political disarray is only a symptom not the cause of our confusion and anger. We see it even more clearly in our Churches in the western world. If there is one city in the US where the Ethiopian Church whether it is Orthodox or Pentecostal has not broken in disarray, I don’t know about it. Many cities have seen one church break into two and then break up into four or more very small churches for no logical reason at all. Only very few churches have avoided this mess.
Although there a re a few great exceptions, most Ethiopian community associations also break up for no reason other than personal animosity and rumor mongering. In my opinion the following social characteristics of Ethiopians needs to be changed.

1. We lie to each other and about each other all the time. Lying and exaggerations are corrosive to the brain and if we make them common habits we will be building our castle on the sand and it will tumble down on us. Please note that no one is as bad as we think he/she is and no one is as heroic and perfect as we think he/she is. The truth is sober not flailing mad with anger or ecstasy.
2. We are either blind hero worshipers (some times worshiping in mass) or we trash our idols for miner human failings and treat them worse than we treat our enemies.
3. We are suspicious of everyone and expect to be betrayed. Therefore inherently we don’t trust and look for confirmation of our mistrust and inevitably find it.
4. There is a hidden tribal chauvinism in all of us which is now blatantly displayed in the Ethiopian blogsphere. We are almost working for a tribal war and most of us believe we will win it. We all know that no one wins in a tribal war. Yet, many Amharas believe that they are close to Oromos with whom they will have easy alliance to eliminate Tigres who are now considered to be synonymous with Woyane. Many Tigres believe that the first chance they get the Amhara are ready to wipe them out and believe that their salvation is to stick by woyane for dear life. Many Oromos believe that they are not Ethiopians but colonial victims of the invading Amharas from whom they will be liberated by OLF through armed struggle. Somales believe that they belong to Somalia not Ethiopia. Similar grievances are spoken by other smaller tribes. All this tribal machinations are magnified a thousand times by Ethiopians in Diaspora. Thus our inability to work together.
5. We fail to recognize that there is no magic bullet that solves Ethiopia’s political, economic and social problems. We also fail to look at democracy as a process. We will be disappointed if we look at it like an antibiotic that kills an infection in one or two shots.
6. We need to know about leadership much more than we do so far. If we elect a leader, say for a community association, we should trust and let him lead. We can not attach a politburo type of a committee that votes every time an action needs to be taken. If he leads badly the leader should be replaced by the member’s vote at the next election.
7. If we agree on most major issues and disagree on a few things it is very good. Only morons and automatons agree on everything. Our difference is our strength not our weakness. It is stupid to trash those we don’t agree with.
8. Finally, let us keep in mind that the Ethiopian Diaspora can not change Ethiopia. At best, it can only play a constructive role in the development of Ethiopia. Ethiopians in Ethiopia should be the one’s who actually do the job.

LET US BUILD ETHIOPIA BRICK BY BRICK AND BUILD OUR MATURITY AS WELL SO THAT WE CAN SERVE OUR COUNTRY WITH DISTINCTION

Habasha Rule (amhara and tigre)must end.now is the time for the majority of the people to to remove this invented name ethiopia and rename it any other name but Etiopia.Why not Oromo Biya?or anything non Habasha.

Recently we posted a press release and then the Solidarity Forum document on AV. The document spelts out the Mission Statement and objectives and even the structure of the FORUM. Most importantly the FORUM is a grassroot movement to be created and stood up by ordinary Ethiopians. If you want me to post the document to you please give me your e-mail address so that I may send it to you. My e-mail address is GURMESA51@YAHOO.COM.

You said “I have learnd a lot from my past years. So, I have promised, atleast for myself, that i will not any more jump and join any pary eventhough i knew that Ethiopia is at its greatest problem.

I expect that most if not all the Leaders of this Forum are EPRP. So come out and make clear yourself so that people know you and join you “

At this time the Forum is being managed by a coodinating committee until the grassroot movement by the members of the Ethiopian public have formed their own “My Solidarity Forum” and then come together to elect the Forum leadership! I am one of the co-ordinators. I can send you the Forum Document which clearly states that this is not a political movement and no member of any political organization will hold office in the FORUM! Once formed the FORUM will be the property of every Ethiopian who will have full rights as a member to participate in the forum. A significant departure from the way organizations are usually formed is that this is primarily a grassroot organization, so that ordinary members can build the organization from bottom up rather than some big shots controlling the organization from the top!

Thank your for your encouraging comments! Unfortunately cynicism has become a way of life for many of us - it is a reflection of a life that lacks happiness! The article I wrote does not explain every Ethiopian in the Diaspora, it does not necessarily exclude those of our brethren who live in Ethiopia, it is an attempt to force us to think - what we can do to change somethings that we may be guilty of, by confronting ourselves as objectively as humanly possible.

Mitomedhin, you said it. You carry your values, and the memories of your happier days in Ethiopia with you wherever you go. You wear your identity on your sleeves and be proud of it - good for your! But just review some of the comments to this article on this page, these are all Ethiopians - Our brothers and sisters, how I am supposed to respond! I hope and pray we all look at ourselves and see how we can get the best out of our lives, wherever we are and whatever we do. You can take yourself out of Ethiopia but try as hard as you may, you cannot take Ethiopia out of yourself!

The focal point is we are are here for a number of reasons, than ever before during Dergue and the current regime and we have opportunity to learn from all sorts of media about the crises, the majority of the population over 90% of whom are going through.

Most of us in the diaspora are literate to highly educated at the expense of Ethiopian and US taxpayers to whom we have the the obligation to lend our support in the name of freedom, democracy and Justice for the masses. In spite of standing together for a common cause to fight for and formulating a strategy, we are fractured into five or six catagories/factions imposed on us by the existing political stuation as mechanism of self restraint/mechanism for survival from being incriminated. We also lived under fear in all the regimes even including the Emperor, who probably go after the few conspirators. Nevertheless,the population at large had more freedom than during the subsequent dictatorial regimes. The elite wanted change, instead of reform, change they got. The liberation movements called for liberation from the colonial empire, they got that and more. The current liberation fronts are doing the same only from the current regime that gave them, the right to secede, but will never happen. Why not join this discussion forum and devise a strategy to stand together and undertake a peaceful struggle. Think about it.

mito i amad at you because of 2 things 1)you incledued me with that bigot and shallow kokeb.kokeb is nothing but athela.2)you are asking me to make sense from article which doesnt make any sense.it looks good from out side but it is empty in the inside.next time please dont mention my name with that triabalist bozo they call kokeb.

GOLTO, I read what u wrote and doesnt represent those of us who left our country seeking better life and opportunities, there are hundreds of thousands of ethiopians who live abroad aiming to work hard and improve their lives. You targeted certain would be seasoned politicians who left their country after being tortured and raped. These people have already lost their pride and their brains is raped aswell, they will try all their best to avenge against those who perpetrated such evil acts against them. Dont tell me everyone who is living abroad has come through forests and dangerous roads, these is a false claim given by many to secure assylum status abroad, there are certain people who took that road but still many others travelled safely by Airoplanes. Dont try to depict negativism about our country. Currently Ethiopia is doing well and its economy is among the fastest in the world, some ethiopians in the diaspora have started to return back home. Regarding suspicions between ethnic groups there is nothing I can tell you, there has been long years of conflict betweem progressives and chauvinists, it was not able to resolve it peacefully, and resulted in decades of armed conflict. Now the EPRDF has already defeated chauvinists and has introduced a federal system where by different ethnic groups can administer their own affairs. last but not least I want to say one thing to you, may God help you sorting out the situation amongst the diaspora ethiopians who believed to have been raped and tortured by different regimes.

Its good article though,as onlf we should support him.B/c this author he doesn’t consider the Ogaden region a part of the(Ethiopian) problems since he didn’t mention even one singl time in his long article pages,the people Ogaden,the most suffered ppl under the all Ethiopian rullers including the worst current woyane will survive and will prevaile.So,for the author and ethiopian politicle expert anylist,hopefully he respected and believes that wer’e brothers but not Ethiopians.Once again we respect as well his opinion and he should stay his hilande Habash area,the truth its were he belongs and only he knows as Ethiopia….Good for you Abysinians.

For the (Leaboches)the Woyane soliders in Ogaden region,we grantee you,that soon or latter we are going to kik their Assis with thier big time humulations to Makale and thier Mountains dry lands.

No decent human being, let alone an Ethiopian, fails to share the pains of the massacre, bordering on genocide suffered by our brethren in the Ogaden! While the severity of oppression may be different from region to region, there is no group of people who have been spared, I doubt if Tigreans have been spared!

You have wrongly located me in Ethiopia’s Central Highlands, and you are spewing the same kind of venom as the former NPPP of Kenyan Ogaden did soon after Kenya’s independence! Today Kenya’s Ogadenis are in peace and are playing hosts to the refugees from the Greater Somalia since the days of Siad Barre, and that traffic is increasing not decreasing! You should take a leaf out of that chapter and learn how to positively impact the lives of your people! You, just as human beings, should try to find ways of aleviating the suffering of Ogadeni people by joining hands with your brethren in the rest of the country!

I have to be forced into either office, but if I find myself there, here are the order of things I would do before I step into office:
1. Form the Administration of National Unity, with members selected from every region of Ethipia.
2. The ANU then elects presidential council, with revolving presidency on annual basis.
3 The Presidential council appoints an interim parliament with the duty of representing the people.
4. Draft the constitution
5. Submit the draft constitution to a national referrendum
7. Ratify the constitution by the interim parliament
8. Hold a democratic national election freely conducted to elect the national assembly and its President/PM.

I also don’t think this article describes the circumstances by which most Ethiopians left their homeland, especially over the last ten years. Most left for economic reasons and travelled through Addis-PERIOD! Ethiopia is poor and no government however civil is going to change that fact over night. So in the meantime, people will continue to leave in search of a better life. Though we all feel connected, I believe it is unfair for those in the diaspora to continue to place judgment on the lives of societies that they left behind. This is especially true for those who have already denounced their citizenship. Should we continue to rally for change-certainly. But get on with your life and if you can really help people back home, do it through the various legitiment organizations already established

Thanks for what you are doing. Please keep up with the good work. As you said the solution for our problem starts when Ethiopians come together and communicate.

Also I ask you do not give weight to some chidish comments that may be posted. Also keep note that some who claim to be supporters of one group or member of one ethnic group, may not be what they claimed they are.

Are you from ‘Bete Kehenet’ (Kehedet), or Johava witness, or of a latest Gosple preacher.

Think the reality. What is going on.
You can read your mind and you can be honest to your feeling or denay it. But you can’t read mine or the people who gave you an accord. Ethiopia is no more the same.

We could not be one in any way. Don’t Dream! Or Stop dreaming! Live the reality. Don’t lie to yourself that is self killing and hence the country. “One Who hides his sickness wull not get cure”

Dear Golto,
You are well equipped to be whatever you desire to be. What Ethiopia need is a unifier like you not a divider like Atse-Meles. What I like most about you is your sincerity. Keep up the brilliant work for the sake of Mama Ethiopia. My God keep you from the evil eyes and spirits of the dividers. I’m with you all the way.
Thank you sir!

The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the views of nazret.com. The views are solely that of the author.
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